Well, if God will enable me to
preach what I had prepared for you, in some measure to speak
to your heart by his word, I will have fulfilled my commission
from him this hour, for he commands his servants, comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, saith the Lord. Open your Bibles to 1 John Chapter
4 and verse 17. 1 John Chapter 4 and verse 17. I'm going to try once more. I won't say try to expound. I don't
hope to do that. I'm going to try once more to
show you some of the majesty of the grace that's here declared
to us. Here are three statements. Herein
is our love made perfect. I remind you to look at the marginal
translation you have in your Bibles. Herein is love with us
made perfect. God's love is perfected in us
That is the end, the purpose of God's love is perfected in
us. It is brought to its fulfillment
in us when God reveals his son in us by his grace. And we're
made experimentally to know that God loves us because the blood
of Christ is sprinkled on our hearts, giving us faith in our
Redeemer. The only way anyone can ever
know the love of God is by faith in Jesus Christ. If you live
in rebellion to God, if you do not believe on the Son of God,
I have but one word for you. The wrath of God abideth on you. There is no reason given in this
book There is no reason given in this book for any unbeliever
to have the faint, foggy imagination that maybe God loves him. There
is no reason given in this book. This universal testimony of this
Babylonian will-worship religious age, smile, God loves you, is
a lie by which folks are deceived and carried into hell. The gospel
declares the righteousness of God in the redemption of his
people by Jesus Christ, and the love of God is revealed in Jesus
Christ, God's son, to sinners believing on him. Herein is love
perfected in us, with us, that is God's love brought to its
complete end when Jesus Christ is revealed in us so that we
believe on the Son of God. Our conscience is sprinkled with
his blood, the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost which he's given us. Herein is love made perfect. God's love is made perfect in
us. Now what's the second line? That
we may have boldness and in the day of judgment. I have been taught from my earliest
days to be terrified of judgment. And if you're without Christ,
you have every reason to be terrified of death, judgment, and eternity. If you're without Christ, You
have every reason to be terrified at every thought of God, every
thought of death, every thought of judgment, every thought of
eternity. But not God's people. Not God's people. Never in the
book of God. Nowhere in this blessed book. Nowhere. I've been looking for
it. Nowhere in this book is there
a hint that any believer has any reason to dread judgment. Not a hint. Herein is God's love
made perfect in us that we may have boldness in the day of judgment. Turn back to the 96th Psalm.
Hold your hands here in our text and turn back to Psalm 96. Reading through the Psalms this
week, I have been struck with the fact that The psalmist sings
praise to God and calls for his soul and calls for our souls
to rejoice in the prospect of judgment. Now that's a different
song. That's a different song. The
psalmist calls for himself, his own soul, and our souls to rejoice
in the prospect of meeting God in judgment. Look at Psalm 96,
verse 1. Oh, sing unto the Lord a new
song. Sing unto the Lord all the earth. Sing unto the Lord. Bless his
name. Show forth his salvation from
day to day. Well, this is salvation. Wait
till you get done. This salvation is not brought
to its ultimate final conclusion until judgment is over. When
the Lord Jesus presents us thoughtless before the presence of his glory.
Look at verse 11, Psalm 96. Let the heavens rejoice. Let
the earth be glad. Let the sea roar and the fullness
thereof. Let the field be joyful and all
that is therein. Then shall all the trees of the
world rejoice before the Lord, before he cometh, for he cometh
to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with
righteousness and the people with truth. Oh, God's going to
judge the world with righteousness and the people with truth. Oh,
rejoice then. Rejoice. God will carry you to
glory if it's right for him to. God will carry you to eternal
bliss if it's right for him to do so. He will not otherwise.
Look at Psalm 98. Psalm 98, verse 1. O sing unto
the Lord a new song, for he hath done marvelous things. His right
hand and his holy arm hath gotten him the victory. The Lord hath
made known his salvation. What is that? His righteousness
hath he openly showed in the sight of the heathen. He hath
remembered mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel. All
the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Verse
four, make a joyful noise unto the Lord all the earth. Make
a loud noise and rejoice and sing praise. Sing unto the Lord
with the heart, with the heart and with the voice of the song.
Verse seven. Let the sea roar and all the
fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. Let
the floods clap their hands, let the hills be joyful together
before the Lord. For he cometh to judge the earth. With righteousness shall he judge
the world and the people with equity. calls on the whole world
to rejoice. He tells us the sea shall clap
its wings and the trees shall sing for joy because Christ is
coming to judge the earth. Herein is God's love made perfect
in us that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, freedom, that we may be as comfortable
and free, as confident and free, as joyful
and free to stand before the bar of God as Jesus Christ, God's
son, he is right now. Oh, God, teach me so to believe
you. Teach me so to trust your son. Teach me so to believe that bold
shall I stand in that great day, for who else to my charge shall
lay? For through thy blood absolved
I am from sin's tremendous guilt and blame. Boldness in the day
of judgment. Well, how on earth can anybody
have boldness to stand before God in that day? How's that going
to happen? The day of judgment will not
be, it will not be a day when God decides whether or not you
go to heaven. That's not going to be it. That's
been decided. The day of judgment is not a
day when God's going to look over your life and see how good
you've been or how bad you've been. And he's going to show
a secretly recorded videotape of your whole life to the whole
world. and everybody's going to have all this evil that you
are exposed to. No, that's not what it is. The
Day of Judgment is a day of declaration. No more and no less. The Lord
God, by His Son, will say to those on His right hand, come,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world, cause this is right. And he will say to those on his
left hand, depart you cursed. I never knew you because this
is right. You fully deserve eternal damnation. These here on my right hand fully
deserve everlasting glory. And I'm going to show you why.
That's what the day of judgment is. It is a day of declaration. the declaration of God's glory
in the final consummate salvation of his people. Well, what's the
basis of this blessed boldness? As he is. What? Herein is God's love with
us made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgment.
Look at the next word, because. Because, because, as he is, so
are we in this world. In your mind's eye look yonder
into glory and behold Christ on his throne in all his glory
The glory that he has earned by his obedience unto death as
the God-man, our mediator. The glory the Father gave him
before the world was and manifestly gave him when he exalted him
and set him down in his own right hand, giving him power over all
flesh. So he, sitting in glory, has
inherited and possesses all things. Now, whatever he is, Whatever he is, that's what we
are if we're in him. Whatever he is, that's what we
are if we're in him. This is not the privileged knowledge
to be shared with a few elite saints. This is a declaration
of God the Holy Spirit given by his servant John concerning
every sinner who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, come
now to Christ. Believe on the Son of God. Trust our Savior. Cast your soul
on His blood and His righteousness. Commit your life to the Son of
God. Commit your soul to the Christ
of God right now. Right now. Right now. I don't care who you are, where
you've been, or what you've done. This is what God says to you.
As He is, so are we in this world. I would not dream of making such
a statement. It would never enter into my
mind to imagine such a thing. And I sure wouldn't make it before
you or any other human being publicly. And I sure wouldn't
utter it before God had God not written it in His Word. But Merle
Hart, this is what God says to you. As he is, so are we in this
world. I don't know why that's difficult
for us to grasp. I don't know why we can't push
aside the religious nonsense we've been taught all our lives.
I don't know why we can't lay aside all of the foolish religious
notions we have from our fallen father, Adam. I don't know why
we can't put aside everything that men say contrary to this
book and believe what God says in his word exactly as God says
it. I can't stress this enough. I
say it perhaps a little humorously, but I want you to get it. I want
you to understand it. I know that as soon as somebody's
going to hear this, they're going to hear me make this statement
as I read the scripture, and their immediate first thought
is, what? No, we don't carry that too far.
Bobby, you can't begin to carry it far enough. You can't begin to carry it far
enough. As He is, so are we in this world. And let me move quickly to what
I want to say concerning that. I'll make six or seven statements,
and I want to give them to you as plainly, as clearly, as simply
as I possibly can. I pray powerfully. First, as the Lord Jesus Christ, our
Savior, is the begotten Son of God, so are we. In His eternal Godhead, in His
divinity, He is the eternally begotten Son of God. That means
He is the only begotten Son of God. But in his humanity, as
the God-man, our mediator, as our surety, as our covenant head
and representative, the Lord Jesus was begotten of God, and
he is the firstborn among many brethren. That's how he's described
in Romans 8, 29. And we are his brethren. And he's not ashamed to own us
as his brethren in the midst of the congregation. He says,
Lo, I and the children whom thou hast given me, We truly are,
as he is, God's sons. Chosen as his sons before the
world began. Adopted as his sons before time
began. And because we were chosen and
adopted as the sons of God, accepted as the sons of God from everlasting
at the appointed time of love, God sends his spirit into our
hearts, causing us to cry, Abba Father, his love is perfected
in us. causing us to understand God's
our Father. We've been born of God. We've
been redeemed by blood. We've been chosen by God. God's
my Father! And we lift our hearts to heaven,
looking on Christ and say, My God, my Father. My God, my Father. God, the thought of whom once
terrified my soul, is my Father. God, the thought of whom once
terrified my soul, is my father, my father who loves me, my father
who rules the world for me, my father who gave his son for me,
my father who governs the world on my behalf, my father who works
all things out for my good according to his eternal purpose of good
toward me. God's given us the very nature
of his son, being made partakers of the divine nature. He sends
his word and gives us life. The Lord Jesus, who washed us
from our sins in his own blood, is the first begotten from the
dead. And God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according
to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again with a lively hope by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And John says
over in chapter three, Beloved, now are we the sons of God. Right now. Right now. If God is my father, I have every
reason to fear him, to reverence him. Psalm 111, holy and reverend
is his name. I don't make jokes about God
ever. I don't use God's name lightly
ever. I don't do it. I just don't do
it. If you make a joke about those
things, you're not going to see a smile on my face. If you use
God's name lightly, you're not going to see a smile on my face.
Holy and reverend is his name. I reverence my heavenly father.
I reverence him because he fully deserves reverence. He deserves
to be feared, worshiped, adored, revered. Because he's my father, I have
no reason to be afraid of him. I have no reason to be afraid
of him. Of an earthly father, you may very well have reason
to be afraid. Your earthly father might kill
you. Your earthly father might beat
you in fierce wrath and anger, in the heat and passion of drunkenness. Your earthly father might cut
your arm off. You may have reason to be afraid
of your earthly father, because your earthly father is like you,
but not our heavenly father. To be afraid of God, to be afraid
of God, my father, is to cast reproach upon his name as father. If my daughter is afraid of me, if when she was a little girl
she was afraid of me, something is terribly wrong with me. That's just right, David. That's
just right. Yes, we correct our children.
By all means, discipline our children. My daughter going to
my house, she's gonna do what I said to do, and I wasn't gonna
say anything twice. The second time got said with
a paddle. That's just, that's the way it was, and that's the
way it would be today if I had 25 children or one. They're gonna
do what I say to do. But if she's afraid of me, if
she's afraid of me, there's something bad wrong with me. And for you
and I, who are gods, to be afraid of God, is for us to say there's
something bad, wrong with God. Now, what were you saying you
feared about God in the Day of Judgment? He's my Father. I've been begotten of God. Number
two, look in John chapter 17. Listen to our Lord's Prayer. Verse 23, I in them and thou in me, that
they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know,
now watch this, that thou hast loved them as
thou hast loved me. God loves his son, and as he
is, So are we in this world. That means Denise, sweet, sweet
lady Denise, God loves you just like he loves his son. And for
the same reason. Is he loved of God? So are we. Look at John chapter 10. I'll
show you why he's loved of God. John chapter 10. Thou hast loved
them as thou hast loved me. Now spend a good bit of time
Up into this point, preaching through John, trying to talk
to you about the eternality and immutability of God's love. Here
is the reason why God loves his people. With that immutable,
everlasting, indestructible love of complacency and delight. John
chapter 10, verse 16. Here's why God loves the Lord
Jesus, the God man. Other sheep I have which are
not of this fold. Them also I must bring, and they
shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.
Therefore doth my father love me, because I lay down my life,
that I might take it again. He said, I'm the good shepherd.
The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. And now he
says, I have other sheep. Other sheep than these who are
now here in front of me. Other sheep than you who are
now hearing His word preached to you tonight. I have other
sheep scattered on the nations of the earth. Other sheep scattered
through the ages of time. Other sheep, them also I must
bring. Must bring. They shall hear my
voice. They're going to follow me. Therefore doth my Father
love me. Because I lay down my life for
the sheep. I lay down my life, and I might take it again. You
mean, Brother Don, the Lord Jesus is loved of God because of his
obedience unto death as the God-man, mediator, Jehovah's Servant?
You got it. That's exactly right. Not as
God the Son. Not in his eternal deity. That's
not what he's talking about. Here he's talking about his voluntary,
willing subjection to the Father as our covenant head, as our
good shepherd, as Jehovah's servant, and he received commandment from
God, and he obeyed God, and now he's earned the right. He's earned
the right to be loved of God. And this was done before the
world began. So it is that God loves you,
if you're his, freely, sovereignly, voluntarily, because it's his
will to love and because it is a love that is fully deserved
and completely earned by the obedience of Jesus Christ, our
mediator. so that it is only right for
God to love His Son who fully obeyed Him. It is only right
for God to love one who's fully obeyed His law, who's fully satisfied
His justice, who's completely honored Him, who's always done
His will. Why? What else would you expect
except for God to love Him? And as He is, so are we in this
world. My God, I thank You that Your
love for me does not depend upon me or my love for You, but only
upon my Savior's obedience unto death, His worth and His merit,
that which He has earned, and that which You, in honor, must
and shall give to Him. Is he loved of God? As he is,
so are we in this world. Number three, the Lord Jesus
is God's elect, chosen of God and precious. In Isaiah 43, he
says, behold, mine elect, my servant in whom my soul delighteth. He's God's elect, chosen of God
and precious. And so are we, chosen of God
in Him, the elect. Oh, what an honor. The elect
of God. People are mocking. They say,
well, you folks think you're special. Well, why shouldn't
I? God chose me. He said we were. He said, because
you're precious. You've been made honorable in
my sight. Honorable. Special to God. Special to God. Because we're one with His Son. One with His Son from everlasting.
Chosen in His Son. Isaac Watts put it this way,
Christ be my first elect, he said, then chose our souls in
Christ our head before He gave the mountains birth or laid foundations
for the earth. Thus did eternal love begin to
raise us up from death and sin. Our characters were then decreed,
blameless in love, a holy seed, predestined to be sons, born
by degrees, but chose at once a new regenerated race to praise
the glory of his grace. With Christ our Lord, our souls
are one. in the affections of his heart,
nor shall our souls from fits remove till God forgets his first
beloved. Number four. You don't need to turn there,
but in Matthew chapter 17, we read of our Lord Jesus again
on the Mount of Transfiguration. The Lord God Reveal something to Peter and
James and John no one else had ever seen. They saw Christ in his transfigured
glory. When they saw him, they saw and
heard Moses and Elijah talking to him about the death he should
accomplish at Jerusalem. And the heard God say, God speak
from heaven and say, this is my beloved son in whom I am well-pleased. Imagine that. Imagine that. Well-pleased. Turn back to Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes chapter 9. Is God well-pleased with his
son? Oscar Bailey, is God well-pleased
with his son? Is he? Bill Rodler, is God well-pleased
with his son? Is he? Well, of course, by the
God who would ever imagine otherwise. As he is. So are we, in this
world, well pleasing to God. All the time. All the time. The things that we do often displease
God. Read 1 Samuel. Read of David's
horrible sin. The thing that David did, we're
told, displeased the Lord. And Larry, God put it just that
way. The thing that David did displeased
the Lord. And when David was sure, God
was displeased with him. God sent his prophet to him again
at the birth of Solomon and said, call his name Jedediah. Nothing's
changed. Beloved of the Lord. Beloved
of the Lord. Because David was accepted of
God not because of what David did or didn't do, but because
of what Christ, his mediator, surety, and substitute has done
for him and has done for us. He's well-pleasing to God. And
we are well pleasing to God in his son. He chastens us for our
sins. Yes. He wings us from the world. Yes. He visits us with the right
of correction. Yes. As any loving father does. But he is well pleased with us
in his son. The Ecclesiastes chapter nine. Go thy way. eat thy bread with
joy and drink thy wine with a merry heart for God now accepteth thy
works. Bogdath, God accepts you the
whole of your life as you walk with him in faith. Can you get
that? Oh, but I mess up so much. Yeah,
you do. You sure do. But I make such
a mess of things. Yeah, you sure do. I won't argue
with you there. You do. Me too. And I don't say
it lightly. I don't say it lightly. But God
accepts us in His Son and He accepts everything about us in
His Son as His Son. God now accepteth thy work. So go your way, eat your bread
with joy, drink your wine with a merry heart. And just in case
some fool wants to say otherwise, that doesn't say grape juice,
it says wine. And if you want to have a glass
of wine, you go ahead and have it. Oh, you don't say that, people. If
you want to have a glass of wine, go ahead and have it. For God
now accepteth thy works. Let thy garments be always white,
and thy head like no ointment. Walk with God, believing on his
Son. Walk with God by the grace of
his Spirit. Live joyfully with the wife whom
thou lovest all the days of thy life, thy life of thy vanity,
which he hath given thee unto the Son all the days of thy vanity. For that is thy portion in this
life. And in thy labor, which thou
takest unto the sun, whatsoever thy hand doeth, do it with all
thy might. For there is no work, no device,
no knowledge, no wisdom in the grave, whither thou goest. Whatever God puts in your hand,
whatever God puts in your hand in this world, Do it with all
your might for God's glory as God's servant. With all your
might and live joyfully with the wife of your youth because
God now accepts your works. You go to the factory and punch
the clock. You're not working for the fellow who owns the factory.
You're working for God. Go out and do whatever you've
got to do. You're not working for the fellow
who hired you, you're working for God. You live in this world,
you're not living for yourself, you live for God. And God accepts
you in the totality of your life as he accepts his son in the
totality of his being. Number five, look to glory again
and see the Son of God. Is He free from sin? Justified from sin? Clear of sin? Without sin? So are we in this world. Robert Murray McShane made a
tremendous statement. He said, when Christ was made
to be sin for us and crucified as our sin bearer, he was buried
and his body laid in the tomb for three days in an unjustified
state. And on the third day, when he
rose from the dead, he was justified in the Spirit. He was made sin. God said, slay him, bury him
out of my sight. And he came forth three days
later without sin. And as he is, so are we in this
world. In him is no sin. Is he freed from sin? God says,
likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed under sin. but alive unto God. As He is, so are we in this world. Number six, is Jesus Christ even today a
stranger to this world? He said, the world knoweth me He said, the world knows you
not, because it knew me not. Therefore the world knoweth us
not, John wrote, because it knew him not. He was in the world, and the
world was made by him, but the world knew him not. And it is still true to this
day. The Christ of God is a stranger
to this world. The Christ of God is a stranger
to this world. Now folks will fuss and fight
over whether or not you ought to have a little baby Jesus in
a Bethlehem scene at the courthouse. I'm not talking about that nonsense.
I'm not talking about men's imaginary thoughts about Christ. I'm talking
about the Christ of God. The sovereign, saving Redeemer
revealed in this book is a stranger to this world. A stranger to
this world. Talk about it and folks will
look at you like you're talking about somebody they don't have
a clue who you're talking about. Not a clue. So are we in this
world. Strangers. and pilgrims just
passing through. Strangers to the world's religions
and the world's thoughts and the world's ways, strangers to
the world's customs, the world's philosophies and the world's
fashions, strangers to the world's ambitions, strangers to the mind
of this world, we have the mind of Christ. I get tired of those,
they. They don't do that anymore. They
don't wear that anymore. They don't do that anymore. I don't give a flip what they
do. I don't care what they do. They crucified my Redeemer, and
they would you too if they could get their hands on you. The world
doesn't know God, and if you walk with God, the world doesn't
know you. And it's not ever going to know you you're not going
to be able to make folks understand why you do what you do Why you
live the way you live it's not going to happen. You can forget
that We with him are strangers in this world number seven Turn
back to isaiah 42. I want you to look at this one The Lord Jesus is the servant
of God. Even now, seated on the throne
of glory, he is his father's servant. He will continue serving
his father's will until he's put all his foes under his footstool,
and he presents his kingdom to God, and God shall be all in
all. He is God's servant. As he was
in this world, so he is now. This one who came saying, as
Brother Mark read back in the office, Lord, I come to do thy
will, oh my God, will continue to do his father's will until
he makes all things new. Is Christ the Lord's servant?
Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, and whom my soul
delighteth. I put my spirit upon him. He
shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry
nor lift up his voice to be heard in the
street. A bruised reed shall he not break,
and the smoking flax shall he not quench. He shall bring forth
judgment to truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged
till he has set judgment in the earth and the aisles. shall wait
for his law. He is that one who was portrayed
in the law of the bond servant back in Leviticus 25. He counted the cost. And he could
have gone out free. And he said, I love my master,
and I love my wife, and I love my children. And he says to his
master here, Take that all and bore a big hole in my ear before
all these witnesses so that they will know I am your voluntary
bond slave. I willingly make myself slave
to my master's will and I want the world to know it. That's
our redeemer. He could, the bond slave, you
know, even after having his ear bored through with it all, he
could go out free at any time. He could go out free at any time. But if he did, he forfeited his
wife and his children. Thank God, Alan. Jehovah's servant
would not go out free. He stayed with his servants and
gave his back to the spiders and his cheeks to them that plucked
off the hair and his face to spinning and set his face like
a flint and went up to Jerusalem to redeem his wife and his children
as Jehovah's bond slave. As he is, So are we in this world,
the voluntary slaves of God's sword, the voluntary slaves of
Jesus Christ, who has loosed our bonds. You see, voluntary
service, voluntary service, Voluntary slavery is not drudgery. Voluntary service is not bondage. Voluntary service, you can go
out anytime you want to. Voluntary service is voluntary.
He's loosed my bonds. I was a bond slave to Satan before. He broke my shackles and set
me free, and now I am his voluntary slave, delightfully so. On the basis of these things,
I say to you, and I say to my soul, I beseech you, therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies
a living sacrifice. A living sacrifice. Tom Bryce,
did you hear that? Present your life a constant
living gift to God. A living sacrifice. Holy. Acceptable unto the Lord. You
reckon he'd take it? You reckon he'd take me? You
reckon he'd take me? Present yourselves a living sacrifice. Holy. acceptable unto the Lord,
accepted in Jesus Christ the Lord. Boy, that's a lot to ask. You know who says that? You know
who says that? Anybody who doesn't know anything
about it. Anybody who doesn't know anything
about it. Anybody who knows nothing about it. Oh, no. which is your
reasonable service. Just your reasonable service.
Just my reasonable service. God, help me to perform my reasonable
service to my last breath. Amen.